Photocopy machine and ejector plate



1963 J. w. CARLSON PHOTOCOPY- MACHINE AND- EJECTOR PLATE Filed 001;. 24, 1960 g l4 7 INVENTOR: J OHN W. CARLSON ATT 'YS United States Patent 3,113,499 PHOTOCOPY MACHINE AN D EJECTOR PLATE John W. Carlson, Chicago, 111., assignor to Speed-O-Prmt Business Machines Corporation, a corporation of Illinois Filed Oct. 24, 1960, Ser. No. 64,360 Claims. (Cl. 95-775) This invention, in general, relates to improvements in photocopy machines and the like'wherein paper is fed through the machine upon a rotating roller and ejected from the machine. An important aspect of the invention is concerned with the provision of improvements in an ejector plate for ejecting the paper carried by the roller.

Briefly, this invention concerns photocopy machines having an elongated, horizontal opening through which is ejected paper fed to a rotatably driven roller. inside the copying machine. An ejector plate or stripper bar is mounted in the opening with its rear edge riding on the surface of the roller. In order to reduce drag of the ejector plate on the roller, it has small offset portions or segments, most conveniently at each end of the rear edge, which lie in a plane slightly lower than the plane of the rear edge. Surprisingly, even though the major part of the rear edge is slightly above the surface of the roller, the paper thereon is smoothly ejected by the ejector plate. In the preferred form of the invention, the ejector plate or stripper bar is made from a single sheet metal stamping having integrally formed therewith the aforementioned offset segments along the rear edge and a downwardly depending tab or car at each end thereof. Each ear has a downwardly opening slot, which is adapted to receive a pin, shaft, axle or the like at each side of the opening so that the ejector plate can be conveniently mounted and detached in the opening of the photocopy machine.

It is an object of this invention to provide improvements in the paper-conveying parts of photocopy machines.

Another object of the invention is to provide improvements connected with the roller conveyance of lightsensitive paper and material to be copied thereon in the photocopy machines.

- Still another object of the invention is to provide improvements in ejector plates which ride on the surface of a rotating roller.

A still further object of the invention is to provide improvements in the mounting of ejector plates in the opening of a photocopy machine or the like.

Other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the invention in conjunction with the drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective View showing the front, side and top faces of an embodiment of a photocopy ma chine;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary, cross-sectional view taken on section 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary, perspective view of a roller and an ejector plate for ejecting paper and the like from the surface of the roller; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary, cross-sectional view taken on section 44 of FIG. 2.

Referring to the drawing, the embodiment of the invention illustrated comprisesa photocopy machine housing designated generally by the numeral 1, a carrying handle 2 mounted on the top wall of the housing 1, and a door 3 hingedly mounted at the bottom of the front wall of the housing. The door 3 is the door for a cabinet in the lower part of the housing 1, which cabinet contains dispensers for dispensing photocopy paper used in the machine. Push-pull handles 4 and 5 are connected with an ejector mechanism (not shown) for dispensing a Patented Dec. 10, 1963 sheet of photocopy paper from a stack'thereof by pulling either handle 4 or 5.

The front face of the housing 1 also has an on-ofi switch 6 and an exposure control dial 7. This switch and this dial are operably connected with the electrical components inside housing 1. The foregoing components of the photocopy machine have been described and/ or illustrated only generally because they are related only generally to the invention claimed. They are wellknown in the art and may be of any suitable construction.

The housing 1 contains an exposure section in the upper part thereof designated generally by the numeral 8 and a developer section in the middle part thereof designated generally by the numeral 9. Here again, the details of the developer section may be of any known, suitable construction, the specifics of which are not directly related to the claimed invention. The developer section has a feed opening 10 and a discharge opening 11 in the front face of the housing 1.

The exposure section 8 has an opening in the front face of the housing 1 made by the converging top wall 12 and bottom wall 13 and inwardly slanted side walls 14. Approximately midway between the'top wall 12 and bottom wall 13, there is placed a stripperbar or ejector plate 15, which is substantially coextensive with the width of the opening formed by the walls 12-14. The ejector plate or stripper bar 15 has a slightly upturned rear edge 16 having the offset segments which are the tabs 17 at each end thereof lying in a plane slightly lower than the plane of the remainder of the edge 16. The tabs 17 are formed by slitting inwardly from the sides of the plate 15 for a short distance and offsetting the segments 17 by S- or Z-bending the rear edge 16 at the base of each slit in the configuration shown to give the offset tabs 17.

The tabs 17 and the rear end 16 lie in a plane which is substantially tangential to or at a slightly inwardly directed angle with the surface of the cylindrical glass roller 18 so that the tabs 17 will lift paper carried on the roller Has the paper moves toward the rear edge 16. The paper P (FIG. 2) is lifted by the tabs 17 and the entire sheet passes over the rear edge 16 and is discharged across the upper surface of the flat section 1h of the ejector plate 15, which section 19 is angularly disposed at an obtuse angle relative to the rear edge 16.

The ejector plate 15 preferably is made as a sheet metal stamping, the sides of which have integrally formed,

downwardly bent tabs or ears 26 The tabs or ears 20 have downwardly opening slots 21 adapted to receive and to seat on inwardly directed stub axles or pins 22 fixedly mounted in the side walls 14 of the opening in the photocopy section 8. The front edge of the section 19 has an degree reverse bend 23 to form a rounded front edge on the ejector plate 15.

The slots 21 are positioned forwardly in front to rear relationship with the center of gravity of the ejector plate 15 so that the tabs 17 are gravity urged into contact with the surface of the roller 18. The ejector plate 15 is easily inserted and removed from the opening of the photocopy section for cleaning, adjustment or the like by simply raising the ejector plate and sliding it out of the opening.

The remainder of the photocopy section, including the exposure light, drive means for rotating the glass roller 18 about a horizontal axis of rotation, and like details may be of any known, suitable construction. Because they do not relate directly to the invention, they have not been illustrated or described in detail.

The photocopy section 8 is operated by feeding the photocopy paper and material to be copied designated by the letter P, in superposed relationship into the opening of the photocopy section 8 between the ejector plate 15 and the bottom wall 13. The photocopy paper and the material to be copied are picked up by the roller 18 and carried by the roller in a clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 2. During the course of travel on the roller 18, the paper is exposed to light in accordance with the setting on the dial 7. As the paper P and the material to be copied return toward the opening in exposure section 8, they come into contact with the tabs 17 riding on the cylindrical surface of the roller. The tabs 17 raise the edges of the paper and material, whereupon they are lifted from the surface of the roller and travel across the rear edge 16 and the section 19 of the ejector plate.

One of the advantages in utilizing only small segments of the rear edge 16, e.g., the tabs 17, which actually ride on the surface of the roller 18 with the remainder of the edge 16 being slightly raised relative to the roller surface, is that the ejector plate exerts a much smaller amount of drag on rotating roller 18 than it would in the case where the entire surface of the rear edge 16 rides on the surface of the rotating roller 18. A clearance between the noncontacting central portion of the rear edge 16 and the surface of the roller in the order of about & to about is ordinarily recommended. Furthermore, all of the wear and possible scratching of the glass cylinder is localized at the sides of the photocopy section of the glass cylinder. These sides correspond with the marginal portions of letters and other papers being photocopied, which margins ordinarily do not contain material to be copied.

The invention is hereby claimed as follows:

1. In a photocopy machine, a housing with an elongated, horizontal opening in said housing, a roller with a horizontal axis of rotation rotatably mounted in said housing adjacent said opening, a removable ejector plate mounted in said opening and extending substantially across said opening with the front part in said opening, means pivotally mounting said plate in said opening for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis, and the rear edge of said plate along almost the entire length thereof being raised slightly relative to the surface of said roller with small, spaced surfaces along said rear edge riding on said roller.

2. In a photocopy machine, a housing with an elongated, horizontal opening in said housing, a roller with a horizontal axis of rotation rotatably mounted in said housing adjacent said opening, an ejector plate mounted in said opening and extending substantially across said opening with the front part in said opening, a pin mounted at each side of said opening, a downwardly depending ear at each side of said ejector plate with a slot opening downwardly in each ear, each slot receiving one of said pins to form a support for said plate, and the rear edge of said plate along almost the entire length thereof being raised slightly relative to the surface of said roller with small, spaced surfaces along said rear edge riding on said roller.

3. In a photocopy machine, a housing with an elongated, horizontal opening in said housing, a roller with a horizontal axis of rotation rotatably mounted in said housing adjacent said opening, an ejector plate mounted in said opening and extending substantially across said opening with the rear edge of said plate along almost the entire length thereof being raised slightly relative to the surface of the roller with only a short segment at each end of said edge lying in a plane slightly lower than the plane of the remainder of said edge, said short segments forming along said edge the surfaces riding on said roller, support means in said opening, and a downwardly depending ear on each side of said ejector plate with a slot opening downwardly in each ear, each slot receiving said support means to form a detachable mounting for said plate in said opening.

4. An ejector plate for a photocopy machine comprising an elongated plate having a rear edge with the end segments of said edge lying in a plane slightly lower than the plane of the remainder of said edge whereby said end segments form along said edge riding surfaces adapted to ride on a roller, a downwardly depending ear at each side of the ejector plate, and means on each ear adapted to receive a supporting pin for said plate.

5. An ejector plate for a photocopy machine comprising an elongated single stamping of sheet metal made with end segments of the rear elongated edge lying in a plane slightly lower than and substantially parallel to the plane of the remainder of said edge, each end segment being formed by a slit extending inwardly from the ends of said stamping with a downward bend to place the plane of the segment in a plane lower than the plane of the remainder of said rear edge, and the ends of said stamping forwardly of said slits being bent downwardly to form a downwardly depending ear on each side of said plate with a downwardly opening slot in each ear adapted to receive a pin to support detachably said plate on said pin.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

1. IN A PHOTOCOPY MACHINE, A HOUSING WITH AN ELONGATED, HORIZONTAL OPENING IN SAID HOUSING, A ROLLER WITH A HORIZONTAL AXIS OF ROTATION ROTATABLY MOUNTED IN SAID HOUSING ADJACENT SAID OPENING, A REMOVABLE EJECTOR PLATE MOUNTED IN SAID OPENING AND EXTENDING SUBSTANTIALLY ACROSS SAID OPENING WITH THE FRONT PART IN SAID OPENING, MEANS PIVOTALLY MOUNTING SAID PLATE IN SAID OPENING FOR PIVOTAL MOVEMENT ABOUT A HORIZONTAL AXIS, AND THE REAR EDGE OF SAID PLATE ALONG ALMOST THE ENTIRE LENGTH THEREOF BEING RAISED SLIGHTLY RELATIVE TO THE SURFACE OF SAID ROLLER WITH SMALL, SPACED SURFACES ALONG SAID REAR EDGE RIDING ON SAID ROLLER. 